Stealing Sacred Fire (31 page)

Shem glanced at him
inscrutably, then said, ‘Daniel, come with me.’ He began clambering
along the tortuous path that hugged the face of the soaring rocks.
Daniel followed him. Dust clouds still hung in the air and there
was a smell of ozone. Daniel didn’t know what it was they’d seen
and questioned the wisdom of going to investigate the explosion.
‘Shem, shouldn’t we wait a while?’

Shem glanced back at him. ‘It’s
quite safe.’ Shattered rocks shifted beneath his feet. He stumbled,
yet kept on moving. Daniel could not let him go alone.

Presently, Daniel saw light
reflecting off something that lay in a pile of rubble that had
demolished a stand of shrubs. Shem said, ‘There!’ and increased his
pace, clawing his way through the debris. He bent down and sifted
through the stones. ‘Daniel, come here!’

Cautiously, Daniel approached.
Shem squatted with his arms resting on his thighs. He gestured at
his feet. ‘Look. There.’

Daniel looked over Shem’s
shoulder. In the rubble, he saw a shining shape that lay partially
buried. ‘What is it?’

Shem gestured for him to come
forward. ‘Take a look. Pick it up.’

Daniel paused for a moment then
knelt down. He saw a perfect crystalline cone about the size of his
fist. Strangely, he could not tell whether it was green or red. The
colours seemed to shift within it. Carefully, he picked up the cone
and dusted it with his sleeve. ‘What kind of stone is this?’ he
asked Shem.

Shem shrugged. ‘It must be
alexandrite. In daylight it appears to be one colour, in artificial
light another.’

‘So what kind of light are we
in at the moment, then?’ Daniel held the stone up before his face,
turning it this way and that. Still, the colours merged and
flowed.

‘It must be an effect of the
earth-light that carried it,’ Shem said.

‘It’s incredible,’ Daniel said
softly. ‘This is what I saw in my dream vision of the Elder. He was
holding it out to me. And in Cornwall, at the eclipse. I saw it in
the dark sun…’

Shem reached out and touched
Daniel’s hair. ‘It’s the key,’ he said.

Daniel handed it to him. ‘And
it’s yours… apparently. Apported straight to your feet.’

Shem nodded distractedly and
put the crystal cone into his jacket pocket. He looked around
himself. ‘It’s very close.’

‘What is?’ Daniel stood up.

‘Kharsag, the garden,’ Shem
answered shortly. ‘This is Eden, Daniel.’

Daniel observed the barren
terrain, the harsh cliffs of splintered rock, the wheeling carrion
birds high above. If this was indeed the ancient land of Eden, then
not even a memory of its former splendour remained.

Eden

The group elected to spend the night in
the Valley of Stones, and here they erected their tents. Jalal
built a fire and together with his grand-mother set about preparing
a meal. The other Yarasadi sat around smoking and laughing, but
their laughter sounded forced. Everyone felt tense.

Shem sat down on the ground and
asked Daniel to massage his shoulders. ‘Invoking ancient entities
is bad for the bones!’ he said.

Daniel could not share Shem’s
light-heartedness. As he dug his fingers into Shem’s muscles he
said, ‘I should have guessed the Elder was offering me the key.
Mani virtually said so. What would have happened if I’d had the
sense to take it in my vision? Would the key have manifested at
Qimir’s camp?’

‘We’ll never know,’ Shem said,
reaching up to squeeze one of Daniel’s hands. ‘But we’ve found it
now, and the next stage must begin.’

Salamiel sauntered up, his
expression tight. ‘It’s at times like that that our beloved
Shemyaza shows his true colours,’ he said.

‘His true power,’ Daniel
amended.

‘You knew exactly what to say
to the guardian, didn’t you,’ Salamiel said. ‘Why did you wait
until Daniel got attacked before you said anything?’

‘He didn’t know!’ Daniel said,
before Shem could answer. ‘The Elders were working through him,
then. He spoke with their voice.’

Salamiel snorted
contemptuously. ‘Oh, of course.’ He laughed to lessen the sting of
his sarcasm. ‘Why did you refer to yourself as Shaitan, Shem?
What’s the significance of that?’

Shem shrugged. ‘Rabisu would
not have recognised the name Shemyaza. Shaitan is a local form of
my name. It seemed obvious to use it. As for knowing what to say,
it wasn’t the Elders speaking through me. Something much more
prosaic.’ He turned and glanced over his shoulder at Daniel.
‘Remember when I entered the underworld in Cornwall? I was asked a
similar question and by some miracle — or perhaps divine
coincidence — got the answer right.’

Daniel frowned. ‘I don’t
follow.’

‘I said that I and the serpent
of the underworld were one. It’s all the same thing, really. God,
king, serpent, light, chamber, keeper and key. All one. They key
had to be mine. I’m learning the script. It’s not that
original.’

Salamiel laughed again. ‘You
are unbelievable at times.’

‘Many people have thought so,’
Shem answered dryly, ‘but despite unbelief, I still exist.’

While they waited for their
meal, Gadreel and Salamiel wanted to examine the key. Shem handed
Gadreel the crystal. She turned it in her fingers, watching the
colours, refracted by firelight spinning over her hands. ‘It holds
all the light of the world,’ she said, ‘and it feels so
unbelievably cold. Where did it come from, and how?’

‘It’s what we call an apport,’
Daniel said. ‘An artefact that simply manifests out of thin air.
The arrival of this one was more spectacular than I’ve ever seen,
though. The key itself was never at the cave. We simply had to
perform the right actions there, say the right words for it to be
summoned.’

‘Then where was it before?’
Gadreel asked. ‘It must have been somewhere. If we knew the answer
to that, I feel we would be approaching the answer to
everything.’

‘Yes,’ Daniel agreed.
‘Unfortunately, nobody really knows the science behind the
appearance of apports.’

Gadreel pulled a wry face.
‘Perhaps it will disappear just as easily.’

Daniel shrugged. ‘It’s
possible, but it has been summoned for a purpose. We have to
suppose it will remain with Shem until that purpose is
realised.’

‘Presumably, there’s a niche
somewhere,’ Salamiel said, ‘that the crystal fits into. The gate to
the Chambers of Light? All we have to do now is find out where they
are.’

‘Are they here?’ Gadreel asked
Shem.

He shrugged. ‘I’ll go and
investigate in a while, after we’ve eaten.’

‘Shall I come with you?’ Daniel
said.

Shem shook his head. ‘No, I
want to do this alone.’

‘But it might not be safe,’
Daniel argued. ‘Who knows what’s wandering around these mountains.
All it would take is for you to go into trance and anything could
jump you — spiritual or human. Let me test the waters, Shem. You
were never averse to that before.’

Shem shrugged nonchalantly.
‘Whatever…’

After they had eaten, the group
sat around their horses in a circle, and passed round a flagon of
rough wine. Conversation was easy, to the point where Daniel almost
forgot why they were there. He listened to the musical language of
the Yarasadi, watching Tahira and Gadreel placing brass bowls of
water around them in a wide ring, in which floated crushed flower
petals. This was their protection against whatever stalked the
night. Once the ritual was complete, Tahira sat down among the men
and began to regale the company with colourful tales of her youth,
most of which sounded like fantasy, but perhaps were not. Daniel
lay on his side, his head supported by one hand, staring at the
fire, while Tahira’s lilting voice washed over him. The fire held
them in a capsule of radiance. Beyond it was utter blackness, and
the sigh of the wind against loose stones. The horses munched their
fodder, snorting and blowing into the food, striking the ground
with their hooves. Daniel almost fell asleep; his mind wandered,
until in a hypnogogic state, he became aware of slow-moving,
stooping forms hovering beyond the sanctuary of firelight.
Drowsily, he acknowledged that these ancient mountains would be
full of spiritual entities, who would be drawn by the fire and the
brighter lights of living beings.

Then Gadreel snapped, ‘What was
that?’ She sat upright, her nostrils flexing like a cat’s.

Daniel felt as if a cold wave
had crashed over him. Reality came surging back and the sound of
the flames suddenly crackled wildly in his ears. The horses had
become nervous, flinging up their heads and whinnying to one
another. Daniel sensed that there was something more solid than
spirit forms beyond the fire, but they were not entirely human
either.

Tahira sucked in her breath
through her teeth, and hissed, ‘Djinn!’

Gadreel stood up and peered
into the darkness.

‘You placed the usual
protections,’ Salamiel said, standing up slowly. ‘We should be
safe… surely.’ The wind played with his hair so that it appeared
uncannily like shifting flames. He could have been a djinn
himself.

‘I hope so,’ Gadreel murmured,
‘but this is strong, very strong.’

Daniel said, ‘Where’s Shem? I
can’t see him.’

Everyone looked around. ‘Gone!’
Salamiel said. ‘The fool!’

‘He’s slipped the leash,
Daniel,’ Gadreel said. ‘He has gone looking for Kharsag’

Daniel groaned. ‘I can’t
believe he’s done this! He called out. ‘Shem! Where are you?’

‘Sssh!’ Gadreel hissed,
grabbing hold of Daniel’s arm. ‘Be quiet. Don’t alert whatever is
out there.’

‘I think it’s already alert,’
Salamiel said softly.

‘Just be quiet!’ Gadreel said,
raking her hair back from her face. Her eyes looked wild in the
fire-light. Tahira stood gaunt beside her, muttering at the
darkness, her shawl pulled tight against her lean body.

‘Jalal,’ Gadreel whispered.
‘Calm the horses. If they take flight, we will be stranded in this
place.’

Jalal and the other Yarasadi
guards obeyed her word, although Daniel suspected that if the
animals panicked, there would be little anyone could do to restrain
them.

For a few moments, everyone
held their breath and listened, but the only sound was the crackle
of the fire and the susurration of the wind. Even the horses had
gone quiet, their postures rigid and alert.

Daniel’s flesh crawled. Whatever
stalked them had come looking for Shemyaza; he was sure of it.
Perhaps it was fortunate the hunter had found only the fire. Now,
he could hear a soft, crunching sound as of light feet pacing over
the stones of the valley floor. It sounded as if it wasn’t far from
where they were all sitting, but he could see nothing. ‘Can you
hear that?’ he asked Gadreel.

She narrowed her eyes,
concentrating, holding her hair back from her ears with both hands.
‘Yes.’

‘Children of the fire,’ Tahira
hissed, ‘the evil ones.’

Her words seemed to act as an
invocation. Some yards away from the group, half a dozen new fires
popped into life, glowing at ground level, before leaping towards
the sky. Purple-blue flames danced in the dirt. ‘Ai,’ breathed
Tahira. ‘They come. They smell us.’

The horses began to shuffle
again, although it seemed they were too petrified to try and
escape. Gradually, tall, motionless shapes could be seen forming
within the spectral flames. They illumined the small brass bowls of
water and petals, and then the water began to bubble and steam, the
flowers to curl up into crisps.

‘Yai!’ Gadreel yelled. ‘Tahira!
The swords! Quickly!’

She and the old woman ran to
Gadreel’s baggage, which had been taken off her horse for the
night. Frantically, they tore at the wrappings and the swords
spilled out in a clatter onto the stony ground. Gadreel took the
largest blade and began to run around the camp in a circle,
dragging the sword’s point in the dirt to create a shallow channel.
Tahira scuttled along behind her with the six other swords, which
she plunged at intervals into the ground. Each time she struck the
earth, silver sparks shot out from the blades.

Gasping and breathless, Gadreel
and Tahira ran back to the others who had now all gathered in a
huddle in the middle of the circle, the shivering horses in their
midst.

‘Will it be enough protection?’
Salamiel asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Gadreel snapped
back. ‘Pray!’

The Yarasadi had all begun to
mutter a chant, their bodies stooped into postures of alertness,
ready to defend themselves if necessary.

Tall figures stepped forth from
the blue flames. Daniel watched them examine the swords from a
distance, as if considering whether the defences could be breached.
The figures were robed in black, faces and heads covered but for
the eyes, which glinted wetly. Then one of the creatures elected to
test the power of the swords. It loped towards the nearest one,
somehow transforming into a thick, twisting skein of red-shot black
smoke before it touched the blade. Upon contact, the sword emitted
a sound like a gigantic tuning fork and vibrated in the ground. The
creature was hurled backwards. Daniel saw it regain a more humanoid
shape. Its robes had fallen from its head, and what he saw
resembled a man who had been hideously burned. The flesh was black
and smoking, only the piercing amber eyes uncharred.

For what seemed like an
eternity, the djinn assaulted the protective swords, but on each
occasion were repelled by their power. Those within the circle sat
close together, holding hands and uttering the same charm of
protection. Daniel was sure he had never experienced such terror.
The djinn were so persistent; they never tired. And he could feel
their passionless determination. They were hunters, but he had a
suspicion they were seeking live captives. Being captured alive by
the djinn might be worse than death at their hands. Daniel hoped
that Shem was safe. It was impossible for him to try and
concentrate on picking up Shem’s presence psychically. Perhaps he
was meant to leave them. Perhaps, if Shem was here, the djinn would
be stronger somehow. Daniel knew that Shem’s power had two sides to
it; the dark side was the lord of djinn.